The present invention relates to vehicle bumper systems having energy absorbers, including energy-absorbing end pieces that nest against the bumper beam.
Modern vehicles have bumper systems that are both functional and aesthetic.  Functionally, they must be able to withstand substantial impact requirements, including front and corner impact testing standards, such as those set by the insurance and federal agencies. Also, they must meet customer expectations concerning appearance. In particular, many modern vehicles have an aerodynamic appearance, with sweeping curved fronts, especially at vehicle corners. The vehicles are also compact in design. This results in conflicting requirements. On the one hand, the reinforcement beam must provide substantial strength for frontal impact, but must not interfere with the sweeping “rounded-off” corner designs on the vehicles. As a result, many beams have their ends modified, such as by attaching a separate component to an end of the beam to provide a mitered/angled cut on the front outer end (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,042,163, angled front surface 42 in FIG. 4). Other beams have ends that are miter cut, and then have flat plates welded onto the miter cut portion to form a sharply angled front outer surface. However, such processes are expensive, because cutting a high-strength beam is expensive, and also because weldingly attaching a secondary bracket is time consuming, expensive, and leads to inconsistencies, variables, and complications in the final components.
Thus, a system having the aforementioned advantages and solving the aforementioned problems is desired.